Sunday 10/30/2022

After watering the plants and doing the puzzle… actually not doing the puzzle, it was extremely tricky and I had to look at the solution to finish it … it was nine-ish. I had received a Tech Squad dispatch in the night. Carol with a printer jam. I like Carol a lot and knew she was the type to be up early on a Sunday, so I called her and she said, come on up. She had an old-ish HP laserjet with a broken paper tray (“but it works”) however she regards it with suspicion because “It was Ray’s printer” (her late husband). Anyway, she claimed it had started printing multiple pages from what should have been a one-page file. So not knowing how to cancel a job, she turned power off, and then it had a piece of paper jammed in it.

I pulled the paper out, and — only because I’d checked a youtube video before calling her — I knew to pull out the toner cartridge and check for more jams. There weren’t. Then we tested it and it was fine, actually it prints really fast and cleanly. I pointed to a button on top with a red X in a circle and I hypothesized that was the cancel button, so we printed a two-page file and hit the red X and sure enough, it canceled the second page.

My guess would be that the unexpected multiple pages were because she had accidentally printed the wrong file, or had accidentally set the print dialog to multiple copies. Anyway, problem solved.

At 10 I went to the Auditorium to join Bert as he was setting up for the big Appreciation Fund kick-off party coming Wednesday. (There is No Tipping at Channing House, but each year the residents (not the staff) run an Appreciation Fund drive, encouraging contributions from everyone to a Fund which is then disbursed to staff members at Christmas. Recommended donation, well, however much you feel you want to tip on one day, times 365.) Anyway, we worked through a couple of problems he was having projecting slides and a video.

He had a video of a dance group doing a very clever and amusing routine to “Stayin’ Alive” (here it is) except, the YT version has several inexplicable freeze-frame gaps in it. So I took it from him on a USB stick, and fired up iMovie and edited out the gaps and gave it back to him later.

At 2pm I met with David G. He had gotten a lesson from Gerald on Friday and thought he knew how to schedule meetings in the zoom room. Well, we tried several times and it didn’t work. But that killed an hour.

I’ve written about the miraculous Topaz AI for photos (3.278) so I downloaded the trial copy of Topaz AI for videos and tried it on the dance video. However it didn’t make any detectable difference that I could see.

Saturday 10/29/2022

The thing today was a day trip with Jean and Patty (Dennis had to drop out) to the DiRosa Art Center in Napa. Patty and I drove down to MV and picked up Jean, and then off by 237 and 680 to Napa, about a 2-hour drive.

This art center was created by Mr. DiRosa, who was a writer who got tired of the city life in SF, and moved to the quiet hills of Napa, where in the 1960s he had a successful grape growing operation. Not a winery, he just grew grapes and sold them to other wineries. Then he inherited some money. He also developed an interest in art, particularly the work of various California artists who centered around the art school at UC Davis (who knew that a campus known for agriculture was also a hotbed of art?) With his money he started collecting, and eventually built two gallery buildings as well as filling a 30-acre field with outdoor sculpture. The art he focused on is called generically, “California Funk”. It’s full of jokes and outrageous combinations of images. I took a few pictures, see below.

After having walked the place for an hour we went for lunch. Following the suggestion of one of the museum people we went into downtown Napa to a Greek place, the Small World Cafe, and had lamb gyros. Downtown Napa was full of parents and kids in costumes, apparently they had just had a Halloween parade.

And so drove back, about 200 miles round trip for the day.

Friday 10/28/2022

I started out for my walk this morning but felt very low. A severe case of the fuckitalls. I’ve been feeling this for a while. I cut my walk short and just hung out in the room.

Today was the CH flu clinic day. I got my flu jab at lunchtime.

In the afternoon I spent a while trying to work out a way to handle access to the three zoom rooms that staff have set up. Theoretically you can send an email to one of them with a standard Zoom invitation. The zoom room pc will theoretically note that and reserve itself for that meeting.

This works fine for Gerald, the IT staff guy. It doesn’t work for me or the other guy who’s tried it. Gerald suggested we install the Zoom add-on to Gmail, but that requires binding one person’s Google ID or Gmail address to that particular zoom account.

It occurred to me that when I set up the house zoom account I had to supply an email, and rather than permanently linking it to my personal email, I got a free email from Outlook.com. So I should be able (per the zoom documentation) to attach the Zoom Outlook Add-in to that email account. Then we could log in to Outlook and send invitations the same way Gerald does. But two hours of fiddling couldn’t get it to work. I suspect it is because the email account is a free one, not one linked to a subscription to Microsoft Office. But the damned software doesn’t tell you that; it just says “Installation failed” but not why.

Thursday 10/27/2022

Did the gym round in the AM. Went out to Safeway for a few items. At 11 it was time to go up to the 11th floor to meet IT staffer Gerald and Bert to talk about doing Zoom Room on the 11th floor. Unfortunately the big roll-around TV has been damaged. This is a large (75-inch?) screen on a rolling stand, to which the IT staff have added the “zoom room” equipment including mics, camera, and a PC. Alas someone recently rolled the upper corner of the TV into something solid, damaging the screen. It was kind of working, with a big black spot in the upper left corner and pretty colored lines going down from it, until I walked up and touched the black spot area. Then the whole screen went black. Ooops. They have ordered a new screen which is supposed to be here Monday.

Next I spent some time going over the info book on the new IBM health plan. It seems a pretty decent plan. However I have not yet received the promised ID card that I need to log on to their system, and to give to providers.

With Wanda coming to clean at 2, I headed out down to FOPAL and put in a couple of hours sorting.

In the evening was a presentation on Diego Rivera by neighbor Harry. David M. was doing the AV for quite a complex presentation, not only slides but videos. And although he protested that he had run the videos “a hundred times”, when it came time to show them, they first didn’t have sound, then too much sound, and generally the presentation was hashed pretty badly by my best AV guy. I felt awful for him. But I don’t have any suggestions, I don’t know what he was doing wrong.

Wednesday 10/26/2022

Went for the walk. Then I needed to hang around my apartment because I’d told my crew of bold AV people I would be available to consult (more like, sympathize) until noon, if they wanted to try out the auditorium zoom stuff.

Nobody called on me, but I got some very satisfying writing done. I saw a post on the writer sub-Reddit suggesting, to get your story going, just have your characters talk to you and write down what they say. Let them tell about themselves, say what they want, even ask them what they think should happen next. What you write isn’t going in the book, except maybe snippets of it, but it fills out the back-story and lets your imagination run.

So I tried that with “Emma and Ethan meet the aliens” (WHICH IS NOT THE TITLE), just started writing what Ethan said as if he were being interviewed. And later, Emma, too. To help things along I found pictures of them. Stuff just poured out. Well it is all based in internet searching I’ve done over the past two days, but still. I’m going to append those “interviews”.

At noon I picked up my neighbor Edie and we went out for lunch to the Sand Hill Cafe, a place I’d heard was very nice. I had suggested a group lunch to the sixth floor, but Edie was the only one to respond to the idea, so. Actually I’m glad of that because, in the end, the food wasn’t that great after all.

At 3:30 I went down to the Green Room with my recovered key (see yesterday) and picked up the powered speaker and met with Susan on the 4th floor for the group meeting to read T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland. She had a phone app with various people reading the poem, she went with Viggo Mortenson (aka Aragorn from LOTR?). It worked, the group of 8 people plus me enjoyed the reading. I got some reading done. Well, everybody had their laptops open presumably following along in the poem. So mine was open, too. Just I wasn’t reading the poem

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I knew a lot of this, like Ethan was the son of state dept. employee and his mother was brazilian and he was good with languages, but all of the details, names of parents, anecdotes, childhood memories, where they lived? just came popping out of my imagination while I wrote. It’s kind of eerie, actually.

Chatting with Ethan

Yeah, Thomas Jefferson HS is my sixth school. No, seventh. Second high school, although in France they don’t call them high schools, whatever. Anyway my dad, Carl Brickton, is a diplomat; well, was a diplomat until he got this latest job, which is secretary to Ms. Coleman, she’s the Science Advisor to the President. Dad calls her She Who Must Be Obeyed, which I gather is a reference to an old TV series. Sorry, he was secretary to the Advisor. Now, after the whole Reethlin thing, I guess he has a new job, Official Liaison to the Alien Ambassadors. That’s me and Emma.

Me and mom and dad have been moving to follow his assignments as long as I’ve been around. He met my mom, Olivia, when he was serving in the US Embassy in Brasilia. She’s Brazilian, daughter of a diplomat that dad’s boss was negotiating with. They like to joke about how dad got notice of being transferred to Gambia by email the morning of their wedding, and couldn’t tell her until afterward, because the groom and bride aren’t supposed to talk on the wedding day. And she always says, “And serve you right for checking email on such a day.”

Anyway. So my 10th year of school was last year, in Paris, at the Lycée International. I had all American teachers, which was good because I could sand off the last bits of accent from my English so now I sound just like any US-born dude. But on the street my French was good enough that shopkeepers never took me for a tourist. I kind of have a knack for languages. French and English are my best, but mom and I sometimes talk the port-oo-gase just for fun. Although my vocabulary isn’t great, I mainly learned it from her lullabies and shit when I was like, a toddler. From the two years in Moscow when I was ten and eleven, I got an OK Russian accent. Again, not a huge vocabulary, but I could talk to people on the street and read a Russian newspaper.

For my dad’s new job we relocated from Paris to the D.C. area, specifically Alexandria, VA. They picked a pretty nice three-bedroom unit at The Curve, a big condo complex. It’s pretty convenient for TJHS, like 15 minutes by bike. Same down to the Van Doorn Street Metro station, if mom or I want to go to downtown DC. Dad doesn’t have to mess around with the metro, being a high-level bureaucrat type. A White House driver — not a real Secret Service agent, just a nice lady named Caroline in a snappy jacket — picks him up every day in a shiny black SUV. Caroline has a strong South Carolina accent, I call her “South Caroline”, and she has taught me some Gullah, which is just a mush-mouth Creole, but it’s fun to speak.

I am no way a computer expert. I’ve been using them since forever, of course, but for entertainment, and the sosh-meeds, and school research. I took a programming course two years ago and got a B. Along with a B+ in Art Appreciation, those are the low points on my transcript. So the stuff Emma does just boggles me, and what she tells me about bot-nets and ransom-ware and all, just sounds like bad science fiction, but she showed me it’s all real.

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Chatting with Emma

I do actually need glasses for distance, so I have to wear them if I was driving, which I’m not because I haven’t got a license yet. This year! I am definitely taking driver’s ed. I wear the glasses because I think they go with my look, well, such as it is. I don’t strictly need them for close work. Often you’ll see me with my laptop and my glasses are up on top of my head. Then I lose track of them and I’m looking all over for my glasses. It’s very amusing for my friends, ha ha Emma, you’re such a dork. You’re welcome, so glad I could entertain you.

I have always been fascinated with how things work. I was taking stuff apart as a kid. My mom has a load of embarrassing stories about cute little Emma taking the batteries out of the TV remote or whatever. And phones! I was just riveted by the phones. No phone was safe in the house once I was a toddler. My folks kept their phones, or my mom would put her purse with the phone, on the mantel or a high shelf. But sooner or later they would forget and leave a phone on the table or something. My dad says if I spotted it I would be like I was drawn by a magnet.

One of my earliest memories is of a toy iPhone that I got for Christmas when I was like, I don’t know, four? I think? I remember how excited I was when I opened the box and then how disappointed I was when I figured out it was a scam, just a toy with a screen that lit up when you pressed a button. I took it completely apart and played like I was fixing it. Yeah, they finally acknowledged the reality and gave me my own when I was nine. I remember I was the go-to phone maven of my class, any kid who couldn’t figure out how to download an app would come to me.

My dad teaches astronomy at George Mason U. in Fairfax, VA., and also runs the science program at the Rock Creek Park Planetarium, North of the Capitol. He doesn’t bring his work home, though. He’s actually a bit of a gamer in his spare time. He jokes about nearly flunking out of Notre Dame because he was so deep in WOW back in the day. When I was 12 and 13 I played some Fortnight, I could do an hour after I’d proved I’d finished homework, and sometimes dad would log in from his PC and we’d raid together. I didn’t play any of the space games like Eve Online because he dissed what he called their ridiculous physics and astronomy.

I mean to talk Ethan into playing Fortnight but that boy just doesn’t like to kill people, even virtually. I tried to show him Minecraft but he just didn’t see a point to it.

Anyway I hadn’t picked up much astronomy until we started figuring out the whole Reethlin thing. Then I had to really dig in to learn about the Solar System and how orbits work. But I gotta say, you can study orbits and satellite mechanics as much as you want, but nothing will prepare you for the feeling of a space launch. That is intense. Or zero G, either, but a rocket launch, oh, man.

Tuesday 10/25/2022

Did the gym round at 7:30. I had scheduled the auditorium at 9 for a practice session with the new Zoom Room setup. Before I went down, I got a note from Susan asking if I could help her get audio for a group, out of her iPhone. Sure, I thought. Just hook her iPhone to the little boombox speaker I used to present very impressive organ music at the “wedding” last Friday. That speaker is stowed away in the Green Room, a small room backstage of the auditorium. And I have a key, which is… where is it?

After I finished my practice session, which went very well, the new setup is much easier to use that what we’ve been doing for “hybrid” zoom events, I went back to my room to look for the green room key. I knew it had been in my left hip pocket on Monday, because when I was at FOPAL Monday, I had stuffed a couple other items into that pocket and noticed it.

It wasn’t there now, nor anywhere around. I searched the apartment. It’s about 9:45 now and I have the writers meeting at 10:45. I go down to the garage and carefully search the car. My best guess is the key fell out into the front seat, but nope. Digging around in and under the seat with a flashlight finds nothing but bits of lost food.

OK, maybe at FOPAL. I drive down to there, the Cubberly community center, and search the areas I was working in yesterday, and check everywhere that a found key might be posted. Nope. Back to CH. As I come up from the basement, I think, maybe I dropped it here, I think I will check the front desk. As I was describing it (three keys on a ring with a purple plastic tag) the front desk person said, “Oh yeah, that’s right here,” and picked it up off the desk in front of her.

The writers group topic of the week was, sins of your childhood, and several people had very amusing stories about being caught shoplifting candy, etc. I had nothing, but while listening I realized there was a period of near-criminality I could have written about. Maybe I will come in with that next week.

At 4pm the AV group met and portioned out the events for the next month. They are a good group. I was able to give them a report on the Zoom Room and specifically advise on how they should also practice with it.

Had dinner with Dr. Margaret and a couple of others. Yesterday evening, dining with Patty and the Allens, I had asked, what’s a good city to go and be a tourist in for a week or two? Diane immediately said, “Vienna”, which she thought was a wonderful place to spend time. Tonight, same question, Dr. Margaret immediately said “Montreal”. That’s where she went to med. school, I know. Joy said, “Seattle” which I immediately dismissed.

Monday 10/24/2022

Took the standard walk. Stopping at CVS on the way back to pick up a prescription. As usual CVS had texted me that my prescription SPI (spironolactone) was ready for renewal.

The prescription is for 90 tablets, a 90-day supply. CVS auto-refill occurs while there are still 34 pills in the previous bottle. OK, the prior bottle was filled on 7/23/22 (middle of the white label). Plus 90 days brings us about to 10/23, which would be now. But how come I have 34 tablets remaining? I have not skipped that many doses (not skipped any, as a matter of fact). So presumably I had 30-odd tablets already in hand on 7/23. At some point they got ahead by a month, but I don’t know when. (Paranoid much?)

Spent some time transcribing upcoming November events from the event committee’s draft calendar, into my A/V event spreadsheet. And began a trial experiment with the new “zoom room” facility staff has installed in the auditorium. According to what Gerald (IT staff) told us we should be able to send a normal Zoom invitation to a scheduled meeting, to a special email address, and it would automatically appear in the zoom room special control iPad. I created a meeting, sent the email.

Then off to FOPAL to process four boxes of books. And back for a lazy afternoon. At 3:30 I went down to the Auditorium and found Gerald setting up for Rhonda’s Open Meeting at 4. Had him check: no, the zoom room didn’t know about the meeting I invited it to. He found my email (the special email account is one he controls) and verified it had all the usual Zoom invitation stuff, but it hadn’t been recognized. I went upstairs and sent it again, this time with an Outlook Calendar Item (something.isc) attached.

Rhonda’s meeting was ok, she went over all the hot items from the Food & Dining resident survey, and what the Dining staff plan to do to address things. Hire more staff, is one. Fix the broken dish warmer is another.

After the meeting I checked with Gerald again. The magic address had received my second email but it still hadn’t recognized it for automatic booking. He put it in manually so I can experiment tomorrow.

Sent an email to the AV team reminding them of our meeting tomorrow afternoon.

Sunday 10/23/2022

Futzed around the apartment till 10. Put on my red docent shirt. Drove to Safeway to pick up 10 pounds of sugar for the hummingbirds, then down to the musem. Led a tour of 15 or so. Came home. Read a lot, and printed a couple more bridge pictures. That was about it.

Oh, finished my ballot. After eating a light supper in my room, I walked out to City Hall and dropped the ballot in the box.

Saturday 10/22/2022

For fun today I drove up to Hunter’s Point former shipyard to the Shipyard Artists Fall Open Studio day. I went to the Spring open day this March (3.149), and also way back in May 2019 (day 154, or 0.154 as it ought properly to be numbered).

(Parenthetically that day 154 post has one of my better musings on widower status ((double-paren, there really ought to be a single word for the state of having lost a life partner. There’s no reason any more to gender it. Once there were economic consequences, the situation of a widow was different, usually more pathetic, than that of a widower. But that’s not relevant now; and anyway, lots of people have life partners of their same gender. OK, there’s “bereavement” but I don’t like it. It’s a long, awkward word that sounds like you are avoiding the subject. Anyway, how would you call a bereaved person, a “bereaver”?)) and also that post recounted the first time I saw Carol Aust’s painting, “Eight Pelicans”, which I still regret not buying. I would have bought it but I dithered too long and lost it.)

ANYway, I took some pictures while I was there and put them in a smugmug gallery.

Friday 10/21/2022

Went for a walk. Back in plenty of time for another meeting with Gerald from IT in the auditorium to once again try to understand the Zoom Room setup they have created. It does appear to package all the complicated setup we have been doing, to create a hybrid event. Jerry, David M., David G., and I practiced with it.

At 3pm I went up to 11 and set up for my small part in the “wedding” of Prunella and Brewski, the 4th floor’s special edition of a monthly TGIF. A lot of people were really into it, and dressed up as for a wedding, several bringing their own stuffed animals as guests to the wedding of two stuffed animals. Here are a few pics.

Rhonda, CH CEO, officiated. The couple swore to stick together “until our stuffing falls out”.